"Chris Lewis" wrote in message
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Whoa! Not so fast... In our area, pumps are now required on all new
installations. More on that, below.

Are you sure they don't mean on systems where the leach field is above
the tank (ie: "mound systems"?).

Quite sure. The affluent must be pumped into the drainfiled, even though
most of our county is glacial till. River valleys, on the other hand, don't
drain for sh**. Thus, there have been and continue to also be new mound
systems installed. It's just another broadly-stroked government solution to
a problem which doesn't exist, right here. Life goes on.

If you're in an area with poor soils almost always needing "mound systems"
in order to get sufficient percolation, it might lead you to believe
that up-pumps and vents are mandatory everywhere, but in actual fact,
it's specific to your local soil conditions.

I find it hard to imagine that codes would insist on septic pumps
_unless_ there was a percolation problem. Because a pumped system
has a higher likelyhood of failing sooner or later.

Your astonishment is duly noted, and you are correct, as far as I know. But
believe it, all new systems are pumped. It doesn't need to make sense.
Visualize a guy with a fancy computer, who has never actually touched a
septic tank lid, handing down his overly enviornmentally-correct opinions to
some yahoo who advises the yahoos who actually decide what laws shall apply,
and it should be easy to grasp.